Review

G. J. Santoni shows that the legislation, as initially proposed, stirred up considerable controversy. Its sponsors believed that earlier failures to deal with unemployment in the United States and other nations had contributed significantly to the rise of National Socialism in Germany, which eventually culminated in World War II.

Michael T. Belongia shows that such an interpretation is unwarranted. Instead, the elusive gains in asset values during the 1970s masked a continuation of the long-standing downward trend in the profitability of farming.